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when the ship sank, so that they were able to pull some men aboard as they
came to the surface.
This boat had an unpleasant experience in the night with icebergs; many
were seen and avoided with difficulty.
Quartermaster Hickens was in charge of boat 6, and in the absence of
sailors Major Peuchen was sent to help to man her. They were told to make
for the light of the steamer seen on the port side, and followed it until it
disappeared. There were forty women and children here.
Boat 8 had only one seaman, and as Captain Smith had enforced the rule of
"Women and children only," ladies had to row. Later in the night, when
little progress had been made, the seaman took an oar and put a lady in
CHAPTER VI 80
charge of the tiller. This boat again was in the midst of icebergs.
Of the four collapsible boats--although collapsible is not really the correct
term, for only a small portion collapses, the canvas edge; "surf boats" is
really their name--one was launched at the last moment by being pushed
over as the sea rose to the edge of the deck, and was never righted. This is
the one twenty men climbed on. Another was caught up by Mr. Lowe and
the passengers transferred, with the exception of three men who had
perished from the effects of immersion. The boat was allowed to drift away
and was found more than a month later by the Celtic in just the same
condition. It is interesting to note how long this boat had remained afloat
after she was supposed to be no longer seaworthy. A curious coincidence
arose from the fact that one of my brothers happened to be travelling on the
Celtic, and looking over the side, saw adrift on the sea a boat belonging to
the Titanic in which I had been wrecked.
The two other collapsible boats came to the Carpathia carrying full loads of
passengers: in one, the forward starboard boat and one of the last to leave,
was Mr. Ismay. Here four Chinamen were concealed under the feet of the
passengers. How they got there no one knew--or indeed how they happened
to be on the Titanic, for by the immigration laws of the United States they
are not allowed to enter her ports.
It must be said, in conclusion, that there is the greatest cause for gratitude
that all the boats launched carried their passengers safely to the rescue ship.
It would not be right to accept this fact without calling attention to it: it
would be easy to enumerate many things which might have been present as
elements of danger.
CHAPTER VII 81
CHAPTER VII
THE CARPATHIA'S RETURN TO NEW YORK
The journey of the Carpathia from the time she caught the "C.Q.D." from
the Titanic at about 12.30 A.M. on Monday morning and turned swiftly
about to her rescue, until she arrived at New York on the following
Thursday at 8.30 P.M. was one that demanded of the captain, officers and
crew of the vessel the most exact knowledge of navigation, the utmost
vigilance in every department both before and after the rescue, and a
capacity for organization that must sometimes have been taxed to the
breaking point.
The extent to which all these qualities were found present and the manner
in which they were exercised stands to the everlasting credit of the Cunard
Line and those of its servants who were in charge of the Carpathia. Captain
Rostron's part in all this is a great one, and wrapped up though his action is
in a modesty that is conspicuous in its nobility, it stands out even in his
own account as a piece of work well and courageously done.
As soon as the Titanic called for help and gave her position, the Carpathia
was turned and headed north: all hands were called on duty, a new watch of
stokers was put on, and the highest speed of which she was capable was
demanded of the engineers, with the result that the distance of fifty-eight
miles between the two ships was covered in three and a half hours, a speed
well beyond her normal capacity. The three doctors on board each took
charge of a saloon, in readiness to render help to any who needed their
services, the stewards and catering staff were hard at work preparing hot
drinks and meals, and the purser's staff ready with blankets and berths for
the shipwrecked passengers as soon as they got on board. On deck the
sailors got ready lifeboats, swung them out on the davits, and stood by,
prepared to lower away their crews if necessary; fixed rope-ladders,
cradle-chairs, nooses, and bags for the children at the hatches, to haul the
rescued up the side. On the bridge was the captain with his officers, peering
into the darkness eagerly to catch the first signs of the crippled Titanic,
hoping, in spite of her last despairing message of "Sinking by the head," to
CHAPTER VII 82
find her still afloat when her position was reached. A double watch of
lookout men was set, for there were other things as well as the Titanic to
look for that night, and soon they found them. As Captain Rostron said in
his evidence, they saw icebergs on either side of them between 2.45 and 4
A.M., passing twenty large ones, one hundred to two hundred feet high, and
many smaller ones, and "frequently had to manoeuvre the ship to avoid
them." It was a time when every faculty was called upon for the highest use
of which it was capable. With the knowledge before them that the
enormous Titanic, the supposedly unsinkable ship, had struck ice and was
sinking rapidly; with the lookout constantly calling to the bridge, as he
must have done, "Icebergs on the starboard," "Icebergs on the port," it
required courage and judgment beyond the ordinary to drive the ship ahead
through that lane of icebergs and "manoeuvre round them." As he himself
said, he "took the risk of full speed in his desire to save life, and probably [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]